Your favourite builds and other tips and tricks

After unlocking some gear, I noticed I tend to build my character towards a specific build. Namely the Frost Blast and Heavy Crossbow are just devastating together. When you have the ability to re-roll stats, you can get +175% damage on the crossbow to frozen targets. Everything vaporises at that point. The first time I got this combo I managed to make it about twice as far as my longest run before, I even managed to kill a boss on my first encounter with him. Also just standing next to a door and one-shotting the mobs behind them is super fun. Tune this with Ice Grenades and Wolf Trap for extra crowd control.

Other tips coming to mind:

Ranged only builds are totally viable, if used properly, for example the Infantry Bow is very useful close range and can be paired with an Ice Bow, which is better ranged and allows you to get near the frozen targets (also the blast on the Ice Bow is an area damage type, so it can hit multiple enemies with one shot)

You can move the camera with the right stick - I realised this after hours of play but hey, better late than never

The scrolls that improve damage types also enhance some mutations, for example the red one increases the bonus DPS on mutations providing this bonus

You can break down the paid doors, which gets you the item for no gold cost, but gets you cursed. You can stack those curses.

Feel free to add your impressions and tips!

EDIT:

I highly recommend rebinding the roll to the left shoulder button, that makes way more sense to me, on a controller

when you find the shop with a cooking lady, you can pause and change the "Diet" option to see all the cosmetic variables of healing items

I didn't know that you could pan the camera using the left stick, so thanks! I'm trying to be more selective with the items I unlock. I don't want to add shitty stuff, like the Spartan Sandals, to the item rotation. My favorite melee weapon so far has been the Assassin's Dagger, which guarantees a critical hit on backstabs and that's fairly easy to pull off.

I love the frost blast, but as i played more i realized my favorite combo was the hyabusa boots with the sword you get from beating the daily challenge for the first time. As you play more and are forced to use combos you never considered before, you will start to find other favorite combinations.

It is important to keep in mind that alternating between weapon attacks does not interrupt attack chains, so you can still get a crit. with the twin daggers if you attack twice, use second weapon, then attack the third time with the daggers. This makes for some fantastic combos.

The best combos basically "pop" enemies in 1-3 hits, but keep in mind that there is a damage cap on bosses of 5% health per hit (i think thats the number) so you may find yourself struggling with a certain combo, even if you were tearing through the previous level.

So, I really like this thread and I'll surely contribute in more detail about my favorite setups later but I was curious (and didn't want to start a new thread): does the Sadism mutation stack? Meaning, if you have say, burning and bleeding causing weapons will you do 198 dps?

While I can appreciate how Wolf Traps and Turrets break the game, I dunno: I'm just gonna be pretty obsessed with how good the red path (can't remember the term for it) *feels* in combat. Sure, it gets me killed in the long run, but damn if I don't have fun and feel like a badass doing it.

My biggest advice is to myself and it’s ‘SLOW DOWN!!!’. I’ve probably only done about 10 runs but at the end of each one I’m always annoyed at myself for getting too confident and dying to something completely avoidable. The first area and a half are fairly straight forward so I find myself rushing in and just slashing until everything is dead but that strategy quickly falls apart. I died 6 times to the first Elite enemy because I wasn’t being careful and making sure I avoided attacks, instead just trying to hit him fast enough to kill him before he killed me. I’m getting better but have only made it to the first boss once where I was quickly destroyed.

My biggest advice is to myself and it’s ‘SLOW DOWN!!!’. I’ve probably only done about 10 runs but at the end of each one I’m always annoyed at myself for getting too confident and dying to something completely avoidable. The first area and a half are fairly straight forward so I find myself rushing in and just slashing until everything is dead but that strategy quickly falls apart. I died 6 times to the first Elite enemy because I wasn’t being careful and making sure I avoided attacks, instead just trying to hit him fast enough to kill him before he killed me. I’m getting better but have only made it to the first boss once where I was quickly destroyed.

Boy, this is a thing I can relate to. I get cocky as shit in this game because of how well it handles, and especially so when I'm just really *clicking* and I have that speed boost going and a damage boost while that speed boost is going...and then all of the sudden I'm left like "WHAT JUST HAPPENED!?" The Elites are like the worst because of all of the shit they spawn around them I find myself getting totally overwhelmed in multiple ways (if you haven't yet, just wait until you start using the Hunters Ord or Grenade or whatever's it's called).

Oh wow, there's a thing you get for doing the daily? I didn't know that.

Anyway, advice, hmm.

The game usually offers you up weapons and items with side effects that sync with each other e.g. you get something that produces oil, and then something else that causes fire, and then something else that does a ton more damage to enemies that are on fire. Pay attention to this, not just the numbers they have.

You literally don't need to kill most enemies, and the rewards for getting to the speed run doors will usually compensate you for what you missed.

There are area-only blueprints for some locations that are always in a particular place e.g. above where you start at the promenade of the condemned.

You can roll in mid air to get just a little bit more distance on a jump.

Dunno if this is something of a bug but your mini map will show you slightly more than what's currently visible on your screen. Check it frequently to see if you missed a scroll or something.

Speaking of scrolls, how the game handles difficulty is those scrolls scale up enemy health the more of them you have acquired. Be mindful of picking up scrolls you might not want or have no use - you'll end up making enemies harder for no real gain.

Turrets and other traps can be abused but they have a range on them otherwise they will not function (it used to be turrets would murder things off screen but it was too broken in early access).

A recommendation I'd give is don't be like me and start just willfully getting cursed every run to save gold (or in some cases to get items I can't afford). Last night I started blowing runs so early and surprise surprise, it's because I started getting cocky and getting cursed and then taking the one hit before I killed enough enemies fo break it. I'm an idiot.

From my experience with Nightmare difficulty up to right before 1.0, my #1 build is Frost Bow/Heavy Crossbow. At that difficulty, you can't afford to take any hits, so the speed of the bow is a must for crowd control; Frost Blast is great, but just a smidge too slow for my taste. And rerolling the bow to Pierce all enemies with reduced chance to thaw ok hit is absolutely deadly. Add on a few grenades that drop arrows on hit, and you even save yourself a mutation slot! From others here though, it sounds like attack dmg is capped on bosses, so you might not be able to freeze/shotgun the second boss before they get an attack or even dialogue in.

Another fun build is Pyrotechnics/Ice Shards. Just a simple keepaway build, but surprisingly effective with some turrets to help as backup. That last blast in the Pyro combo is veeery satisfying on clumped mobs.

I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned this, but the game has a health rally mechanic which I only noticed after 20 hours of play. Similar to Bloodborne, you can reclaim some of the damage you've taken if you kill enemies quickly after being hit. It's not much health in the long run but if you're near death it can be a life saver.

The crew has talked a lot so far about disliking tactics builds & leaning more toward brutality(str); but straight up, once you unlock the Heavy Turret, tac builds can become extremely OP if not just plain broken. If you use the efficiency mutation, by about halfway through the run you can have a new turret out like every 3 seconds, so basically constant DPS. Stack that with some multiplicative elemental damage modifiers & you can chunk down the final boss in under 1'30 easy. Regular adds will go down within half a second & elites within about 5 seconds of placing the turret if you spec correctly. If you find a legendary Ice Bow or Fire Brands, you're basically unstoppable(if you have the appropriate elemental modifiers).I did play probably 20 hrs of the early access version on Steam(so I have some experience with the combat), but after picking it up on Switch, I beat the hand of the king with this strat on my 8th run. This effect can be achieved with pretty much any turret(i.e. Double Crossb-o-matic, Sinew Slicer, & especially the heavy turret).

If you're having trouble with the first boss, use a combination of the Sinew Slicer & the Wolf Trap with the efficiency mutation, which are all unlocked from the start. Invest mainly in Tactics(purple) and some in Survival(green) for the Wolf Trap. Then, pick up a ranged weapon like the Duplex Bow or Throwing Knives(or, if you're lucky, the Fire Brands). Throw out both skills as soon as they regen to maintain their durability. The Sinew Slicer will do most of your sustained DPS throughout the fight. The Wolf Trap synergizes with the Sinew Slicer quite well, but comes in most handy in the latter part of the fight for his jump attack. While normally he jumps across the arena and bops you, the boss will instead get stuck in the Wolf Trap and not be able to move. Take these opportunities throughout the fight to get ranged hits off & refresh your Sinew Slicer. This is just a good early-game build in general, but it really shines in this bossfight.

I have had some good str only runs with grenades and such, but IMO it's far easier to play tac than str, because in the long run you're going to be doing around the same amount of damage but with far less risk. Do watch out for the guys with the huge swords in High Peak Castle, though, because their tornado-like attack basically renders turrets useless. But, if your efficiency mutation is high enough(Mutations scale with stat increases), you should be able to throw down multiple turrets in quick succession(i.e. 2-4 seconds) to knock him out of his attack. Also, either heavy turret tac builds or elemental stacking str nade builds seem to be the most effective on Conjuntivius, the sewers boss. Don't even try to use a melee only build on him, all I'll say is that it won't go very well, without spoiling too much.

Another thing I've found useful is early on in the game, I would invest in some weapon/skill unlocks until they requires only 1 cell to unlock. You can either use this to manipulate the loot pool to suit your preferred stat(brut, tac, sur)/play style OR if you get deep into a run & think you might finish it, you can spend 1 cell & get a weapon/skill/ability that matches your current level. They won't show up in the rest of your runs until you do finally unlock them, but basically getting it for free when you need it the most could potentially change the outcome of that run. Plus, if you don't end up using them like that, unlocking them all at once and seeing like 20 different items in one room is pretty cool(but a little wasteful gold-wise).

Also, when you've gotten somewhat accustomed to the first few levels(say 10 runs or so), DEFINITELY go for the timed doors. If you don't try to kill every enemy, 2 minutes can be easily achieved on the first level for the Toxic Sewers/Promenade timed doors while still picking up some of the stat upgrades/items along the way. The timed gates always have a scroll of power, cells, and money behind them(except for the one in the forge, that one's just money and cells). I've found that the amount of cells can vary from like 10 to I think I've gotten 28 once? There's probably a hard and fast stat like how ever many you would've gotten on the previous level or something, but I don't know it. It's pretty much always worth it though, I've found. Plus, going fast in this game makes you feel badass.

I've been playing pretty much non-stop since release because I mainly play roguelikes anyway(over 200 hrs in BoI, EtG & Rogue Legacy, over 50 in Flinthook, Neurovoider, Crypt, GoNNER, Tumbleseed, & Death Road), but tbh, my motivation to keep playing Dead Cells has dropped a lot since beating the regular difficulty. The progression seems heavily focused on ramping you up to the end of normal mode, & once you do, you can either keep grinding cells for item unlocks or move on to the next difficulty. With only one playable character in the game & no rewards for beating it on subsequent playthroughs of the same difficulty, I find myself not even worrying about the final boss once my cells/blueprints are cashed(because beating him has the same outcome as just dying progression-wise). If the only goal other than unlocking more items is to get more boss cells by going up a tier(and probably a few rare blueprints, IDK), I'm probably just going to grind out the rest of the items on normal & wait for more content, because I've unlocked all the runes already.

Howlongtobeat has this game at 27 hrs for main+extra and 50 for completionist, so it seems to be on the shorter side in terms of roguelikes of the same esteem/calibre. I've already logged 18 hrs on Switch (so about 40 total) and I've unlocked what seems like about 60-70% of the items(maybe I've just been playing too much lol). If cells could be used to dump into more permanent upgrades such as health and crit chance(other than the ludicrously expensive forge upgrades)like Rogue Legacy, I think the progression ramp would make a lot more sense, because then you could play through higher difficulties in a similar way to the victory laps in Binding of Isaac. You get progressively more OP, but the enemies scale with you(granted not by nearly enough in BoI, lol). All that being said, I've still enjoyed the shit out of the actual gameplay thus far. It does physically pain me to watch other people play this game, though, because play style can vary so drastically from person to person. Maybe the controls just clicked with me more than usual, because it took me like 100 hours in Enter the Gungeon to reach a proximate skill gap to this game. Anyway, I hope some of my tips help new players and that my Tactics stat apologetics convinced some new players to not just ignore anything purple.

I'm nearly 50 runs in, only just having reached and beaten the clock tower boss for the first time this last run, and then immediately dying to an elite in the castle.

I've really geared towards tactical builds for what have been my best runs so far. For me, turrets are absolutely essential, and combined with the cooldown mutation, being able to throw one out every few seconds and constantly deal damage and draw aggro without necessarily having to risk yourself...there's no other way, haha. I've been toying with throwing a turret and explosive decoy out at once and that's been a pretty effective combo.

For my main weapons, my favorite one so far has been the Impaler. High damage, long range, and fast strikes. That thing is nasty. I like pairing that with almost any kind of bow so I really feel in my element.

Just had a really great run with firebrands, wolftrap, and the saw blades. Got up to the second boss for the first time and got him down to like 75% before he killed me.

Quick question for y'all, is there any advantage to switching to a higher level version of the same item if you're happy with the effects on the lower level item? I had wolf traps 2+ for the entire run. Had the opportunity to get wolf traps V but the damage was the same and the status effects didn't work as well with my build.

@flatblack: There are definitely times when you will get higher level dupes with the same DPS. As long as there aren't more modifiers on the higher level ones(which I'm fairly certain there aren't), you should be good to stick with the more synergistic item. I've had level 3 legendaries carry me because of god rolled modifiers. The higher level item will be worth more gold & cost more gold to upgrade, though. Something to keep in mind.

I lean heavily into the Tactics tree since the ranged stuff is more my style. At later levels, it seems very OP and boss fights become a matter of dodging, jumping over attacks, peppering the bosses with my arrows, and launching the stuff once they've been taken out.

Anyone got any tips for the forgotten sephulchre? I've gotten there a few times then just panicked because of the gas...

I died the first three times I got to that area, but then I got to a simple flow of running towards a light before trying to fight anything. Kite to light, eliminate enemies, move on. Don't be afraid to backtrack to a previous light as well. Also note the yellow lights/lamps are infinite, while the green ones are time limited.

I restarted from the beginning when the 1.0 build came out, having never even beaten the first boss despite 50 or so runs. My very first run after restart I made it all the way to the throne room with an ice bow and twin daggers. The ice bow had piercing and 4x slowdown on it, so for every situation I'd just freeze the two closest enemies and beat the hell out of them with the daggers and kill them before they'd have a chance to attack. Still waiting for another ice bow to drop though. :-(

Tips, I'll say this, don't be afraid to cheese it. If you have Turrets, use them, drop'em and skrrrt to safety. Got me to the end of many a level by playing like a coward.

oh... and that crossbow shotgun... pair that with a ice hadouken.

Anyone got any tips for the forgotten sephulchre? I've gotten there a few times then just panicked because of the gas...

There's a gold-door (which I just realized is a literal pay-wall. Meta-commentary by the Anarcho-Syndicalist Commune at Motion Twin?) at the beginning that contains a portable version of the light, if you can afford it. Just remember to port back to pick up your prior weapon when you find an exit. It's useless for the subsequent boss fight.

I have fully jumped on board with Tactics builds. Especially with the Heavy Turret, Heavy Crossbow, and any kind of freeze ability. It's just kind of crazy (although I still manage to spaz and die on the final boss). One sad thing that happened to me, however, on the run I was sure I was going to beat it (4 Legendary Weapons, a level 25 in Tactics, a boatload of HP, and just wiping shit out in one shot), and I was walking up to the Throne Room stairs and the game crashed. I had to redo the final level from the beginning. And while that should have been fine, something broke in my brain I think and I choked and died almost immediately during a curse. It was a very troubling experience that I'm still not over.

Well, the secrets hidden in the walls are marked by glyphs that show up when you are close. Just learned that tonight.

Read it on reddit and it seems to be true. Turret +wolf trap is pretty cheesy but an ez way to get past bosses. As someone else said, way to beat the first boss for sure. The advice I read that had me try it said it got said person right through the last boss as well so, the tactic might be viable for the entire game.

I certainly found it to be extremely effective on those pirate enemies (which are the worst I've seen, but that's also as far as I've gotten).

Yeah, as someone who just started the game yesterday and is just now reading this thread, I have to agree with pretty much everyone about how effective Tactics + turrets are. Get a decent ranged weapon and Wolf Traps, get a turret, get some of the good mutations that benefit turrets, get a zillion ranks in Tactics, and you got a stew going.

I managed to get to what is apparently the final level (High Peak Castle) on my like 6th run because I managed to do all of the things I just described. Sadly I died due to some sloppy play around the high damage enemies there, and also I only have 2 health flask uses so far.

Can anyone make a compelling case for using any of the Shield-type weapons (Survival-stat based)? Brutality and Tactics weapons seem so much better, and I don't really see the benefit of blocking/parrying when the game has a good dodge roll. Maybe after I beat the game I'll do a self-imposed challenge run of some kind of melee-and-shield build, but I just don't see the point of ever picking up shields right now (4.5 hours into the game).

I had an amazing run with a broadsword / ice grenade / bear trap combo - I lucked out on a colourless broadsword early on in the run, so just iced and sliced everyone who got in front of me, and could one-hit most of them for the majority of the run..

The freeze negates the sluggish attack animation (especially with a slow defrost rate), and them being dead after the first hit - well that negates the cooldown on the grenade (and honestly, the need for bear traps. They were my safety blanket).

I also had a great bloodsucking build, with really high DPS weapons (I forget exactly what, it was some kind of sword, and a dagger) that gave me 1hp per hit, plus I invested heavily in Survival, which boosted the HP per kill up to 7 or 8. I was basically unkillable until some bad play in that red doom-looking dungeon area, against those big slow guards.

You do not need to give the Collector your cells after every level. You can break his door and save them for the Blacksmith dude after bosses, buffing him increases the chances of getting better quality drops.

You do not need to give the Collector your cells after every level. You can break his door and save them for the Blacksmith dude after bosses, buffing him increases the chances of getting better quality drops.

Awesome, I didn't know you could break those doors as well, I have been pouring those 20-ish cells every time to buff the "+" drop rate, currently at 55% by just doing those small increments. This should speed that up!

My friend and I trade the controller off every run. We’re seeing who can get to the end first like that. Last night, he got an amulet pretty early on that made him invisible unless he was attacking someone. He could just run through whole levels and every enemy like a ghost. I don’t know how often that amulet shows up, but I hadn’t heard or read about it before. He was even (seemingly) invisible to bosses. Plus, he already had a bow that could one shot just about anyone.

I thought, well, this is the run. There’s no way you can mess this up, dude. If it was my run, I would have scouted every level, picked up every scroll, and only fought when I had to. He proceeded to fight everyone, and almost died many times. I asked him why, and he said, I’m getting cells!!! I said, yeah, but why? You can get cells anytime, this is your gift run.

He eventually got himself killed by the Time Keeper. I can’t tell you how much anxiety I had watching that go down.

@bisonhero: The only times I like using shields are for projectiles and bosses. I find it can get a little too hectic in the some of the later areas so it's easier to roll/run away than to try and parry a bunch. If I do end up using a shield, I prefer using the charge shield, with the one that pushes the enemy back in a very distant 2nd. The charge shield is the one Jason had found in the latest UPF that moves you forward when you parry. As it turns out, this trivializes a lot of each bosses attacks as well as allows you to basically perform a dodge roll while also parrying at the same time. My 1st completed run I was using a charge shield and it can feel incredibly broken at times with how much less you have to worry about on the bosses once you get the timing down.

@omegadef: I got that amulet as well, once, it activated the effect after 5 seconds of non-attacking and the first attack out of invisibility got a huge damage buff. But I don't see how is that useful against bosses, dodging for 5 seconds to get the effect again and again doesn't seem very advantageous?

This is my current build and I'm in the clock tower and I'm seriously loving it. Levelling tactics (which i discovered made turrets work wonders) is basically making me jump the enemy, deploy and hide. the Heavy Crossbow is basically a back-up. I should swap out that shield for a melee weapon that works with the inflammable oil so I can get in close and not rely on turrets all the time.

I've been messing with some more status and damage over time builds and they are a lot of fun during normal levels but seem to fall apart when you get to boss fights. Combinations of of freezing/wolf traps with turrets that do bleed/burn/poison damage let you clear out rooms without ever putting yourself at much risk but the way bosses develop resistances makes the builds a lot less viable unless you have confidence in your ability to dodge attacks for long periods of time. I guess without the resistances it would be too easy to lock the boss into never attacking at all but as it is I feel like the balance is too far in the other direction. Maybe some of the later game weapon and trap unlocks will make it more viable.

@stinger061: This is the problem I'm hitting. I can get the right build with traps, etc...and it will just ravage 99% of the game, with the exception of some aspects of the final level with their high level damage and the way the setups are (FUCK THOSE MAGICIAN DUDES COMING BACK). But yeah, I go into the Hand of the King with a build where I get hit maybe 10 times all game and he just WIPES me because I'm not good enough to dodge his shit and use my items at the same time and I enter to "Seth Panic Mode" until he pushes me into the spikes and that's basically my death rattle. Once he does that once, I'm done for. And the freeze stuff just doesn't do it for me by the end. They get too resistant to that too, or I become too reliant. Whichever comes first.

@sethmode: Crypt of the Necrodancer had a cool option where you could practice against single enemies to learn their patterns without having to run all the way through the game and I wish Dead Cells had something similar (or maybe Spelunky style shortcuts). Those late game enemies do get tough and I've often found myself dying to something new after an hour+ of a run and not feeling like I've learnt much. It's hard to then motivate yourself to start again knowing that even without exploring much it's going to be a while before you get another chance to face the later game stuff.

@stinger061: That's absolutely my frustration with The Hand of the King. I have something of a grasp on his attacks but his patterns are still a bit all over the place and WAY too fast for me, and it literally takes me 35-45 minutes to get to him every time. I really liked that feature in Crypt. I think it's a positive and a negative it not being there in Dead Cells. From an enjoyment standpoint, it'd be nice to practice. However, the pressure that I feel when I get to him because I had to work to get there really amps up the intensity in a way that most games don't.

Still, I think the bosses in general are kind of bullshit for the average player. They just have a lot of shit going on that I don't think the levels prepare you for in any way. The Concierge is the least offensive in this capacity, but I also think I only think that because I'm so used to his fairly slow attacks that I he's trivial to me. I still don't think he's a well designed boss in terms of testing you based on what you've learned up until that point.

The Hand is wrecking me too, I'll miss one roll and just get like two or three shotted. It's the same issue I had with Enter the Gungeon, it takes too long to get to the stuff that I still find hard to practice and I stop feeling like I'm making progress. That said, I've only gotten through the castle a handful of times, so I'm not super frustrated with it just yet.